


your heart and mine beat in sync

by perfectlyrose



Series: on the same page [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: (listen... that should be a tag), Alien Culture, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Galra Mate Bonds, M/M, Marriage Proposal, Post-Canon, Romance, Someone already stumbled through his love confession, accidental proposal, after pretending to be married, past angst, why not add a semi-accidental proposal to the mix!?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-18
Updated: 2019-03-18
Packaged: 2019-11-23 08:11:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,239
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18149324
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/perfectlyrose/pseuds/perfectlyrose
Summary: Shiro brushes another soft kiss over Keith’s lips and then pulls back. “So, you ran because you were scared?”Keith takes a deep breath and his teeth dig into his bottom lip for a moment before he finds the words he wants. “Yes, but that’s not the main reason.” Shiro waits for him to continue and after a few charged moments, he does. “How much do you know about Galra mate bonds?”“Not much beyond the fact they exist,” Shiro admits, a bit thrown.Keith tells Shiro why he ran after their kiss in the dining hall and reveals what Galra mate bonds have to do with it.





	your heart and mine beat in sync

Fifteen minutes after Lance’s interruption, Shiro and Keith pull apart to cool down a bit and catch their breath.

“You never actually told me why you ran,” Shiro says after a bit. He is basking in the warmth of having his love returned and his head is buzzing with the effects of heated kisses, but he still wants to know.

Keith is still on his lap and he buries his face in the crook of Shiro's neck with a groan. “Do I have to?”

Shiro runs a hand up and down Keith's spine. “I would like you to, but you know I won't make you.”

He huffs out a sigh, breath skittering down Shiro's neck in a warm rush. “It was a combination of things,” he says finally, still speaking more into Shiro's shoulder than actually to him. He inhales and then climbs off of Shiro to sit crosslegged on the couch, facing him. 

“Part of it,” he says, “was just the fear that I crossed a line by kissing you. I couldn’t exactly ask you if it was okay.”

“Like I said before, you gave me plenty of time to back away from the kiss if I didn’t want it,” Shiro jumps in when he pauses. He reaches out to lace their fingers together. His Altean arm drifts to Keith’s face to push a piece of hair out of his face. “All I could think about was that I wanted to kiss you so badly and was finally getting the chance, even if it didn’t mean the same thing to you.”

Keith captures his Altean hand and pulls it down, laying a kiss on metal knuckles before letting their joined hands fall to his lap. “We’re such idiots,” he says.

Shiro nods. “Allura has been telling me that for a few years, minimum.”

“Lance has been bugging me about it since we first made it back to Earth,” Keith says with an annoyed look.

“I’m honestly surprised they weren’t doing any overt scheming to get us together.”

Keith snorts. “I caught onto all of Lance’s early plans and made him quit it.”

Shiro grins and squeezes his hands. “Okay, so that was one reason for the running. You said it was a combination of things?”

Keith bites his bottom lip, gathering himself. “Also ended up on the same train of thought as you. Thought the kiss might’ve tipped my hand as to how I feel about you. It fed into the rest of the fear and made it easier to just run instead of waiting to see how you gently you’d shoot me down.”

“I’d never shoot you down,” Shiro assures him. He leans forward and steals a quick kiss. “But you didn’t know that yet, so I get that.”

“You’re a sap,” Keith teases with a grin.

Shiro cocks an eyebrow. “You’re just now figuring this out?”

“Experiencing it first hand, full force, now.”

“Oh baby, I’m barely getting warmed up.”

“Ridiculous man,” Keith says but he’s just a bit breathless and his cheeks are burning.

Shiro brushes another soft kiss over Keith’s lips and then pulls back. “So, you ran because you were scared?”

The fact that running isn’t usually the way Keith deals with problems, even emotional ones, is a truth that hangs heavy between them.

Keith takes a deep breath and his teeth dig into his bottom lip for a moment before he finds the words he wants. “Yes, but that’s not the main reason.” Shiro waits for him to continue and after a few charged moments, he does. “How much do you know about Galra mate bonds?”

“Not much beyond the fact they exist,” Shiro admits, a bit thrown. “Not as much as I should considering they’re part of the man I love’s culture. I guess I just never gave them much thought. Can Galra form a bond with non-Galra?”

Keith nods. “It’s like… attuning your quintessence to each other? So Galra can form a bond with almost any sentient being with enough quintessence.” He pauses and offers a small smile to Shiro. “Humans definitely qualify.

“Fully mated pairs are in sync at some cellular level,” he continues. “I don’t really know all the science behind it.”

“I mean, you can say it’s at least half space magic and at this point I won’t even blink,” Shiro says with a wry smile.

Keith huffs out a laugh. “Again, our lives are weird.”

“Not arguing that at all.” Shiro squeezes his hand. “Mate bonds?”

He nods. “Mate bonds. There are a couple different...levels, I guess? It’s possible to form a provisional bond before a full bond. Ones that are accepted by both parties have the option to be dissolved relatively painlessly if done mutually. There are also one-way provisional bonds in cases of unacknowledged or unrequited love. Since those aren’t a mutual bond, they can’t be dissolved, only broken.”

Shiro nods, starting to think he’s not going to like where this conversation is headed.

“Mutual provisional bonds are like an engagement,” Keith continues. His voice is expressionless, like he’s reciting a textbook. “It’s a time for the pair’s quintessence to start syncing and all that, make sure they’re compatible before it’s almost impossible to break the bond without one of the parties dying.”

“Makes divorce sound relatively easy in comparison, even Vasquez and Bryce’s,” Shiro jokes weakly.

Keith winces at the thought of the two pilots’ messy split. Everyone on or connected to the Atlas knew about those bitter divorce proceedings. “Yeah,” he agrees. “Galra tend to be very careful in the creation of bonds and often mate for life because the aftermath of a broken bond is... not good.”

“Sounds like an understatement,” Shiro ventures carefully. Keith shoulders are hunching in, a telltale sign that he’s feeling exposed and fragile.

“A bond breaking, even if it’s one-way or a provisional bond and not a full mate bond, is one of the most painful things a Galra can experience,” Keith says, eyes settling somewhere over Shiro’s shoulder. “It’s a full body pain, like every single bone in your body is on the verge of breaking under pressure and claws are digging out your heart and the inside of your skull. The stronger the bond, the longer it takes for the feeling to fade and even after the pain is gone, there’s a lingering emptiness for....” he trails off and swallows hard. “For awhile.”

Shiro’s heart is pounding and a chilling realization washes over him. “Keith,” he says, voice cracking over his name. He tries again. “Keith, it sounds like you have more than academic knowledge of this.”

Keith closes his eyes and lets out a shuddering breath. His grip on Shiro’s hand is borderline painful but Shiro just squeezes back.

“Keith,” Shiro says again, a note of pleading in his voice. He wants Keith to tell him that he hasn’t experienced this first hand, that Shiro is wrong, but he knows Keith won’t lie to him.

“I didn’t know.” Keith’s voice is almost a whisper. “Apparently it’s common for young Galra to form superficial first bonds, usually one of the one-way ones. They’re expected to break when they realize that it’s not going to work but the pain is less because the feelings aren’t strong.”

“Like a first teenage heartbreak?” Shiro asks. “Feels devastating at the time even if it was barely anything when you look back at it.”

Keith shrugs. “Yeah, I think so. They learn how to control the impulse to form a bond afterwards, to only do it on purpose and with intention.”

“But you didn’t know you were part-Galra,” Shiro whispers back. “You have the ability to form a bond but didn’t know that or how to control it.”

Keith nods, hair falling forward into his face. “If I had to guess, I formed a bond with you sometime after rescuing you from the Garrison.”

“It wasn’t a superficial bond, was it?” Shiro knows Keith feels things fiercely, no holds barred.

He shakes his head. “Maybe it was at first, but it wasn’t by the time it broke. I didn’t even know it was there until months after it broke and Kolivan recognized the signs. I just thought…”

Shiro reaches up and tucks Keith’s hair behind his ear. His heart is breaking for him but he knows this is something Keith has carried mostly on his own for too long and needs to get out. “I’m here, Keith,” he soothes. “You thought what?” He can’t imagine what Keith thought that kind of pain could be.

“That I just was dealing with losing you a second time really badly,” he says. Shiro freezes. “That the grief was just worse for whatever reason. You died and the bond broke and I...”

Shiro lets out a noise he doesn’t really want to admit to and pulls Keith back onto his lap and into a hug, clinging to him. “I’m sorry I left and you had to go through that alone,” he says into Keith’s hair. They’re both shaking. They still don’t talk about Shiro’s time away from the land of the living often.

“You didn’t exactly leave on purpose,” Keith replies, face buried in Shiro’s shoulder. “Everyone kept telling me you were dead, but I couldn’t stop looking for you. It’s the only thing that made it hurt less.

“Keith, I’m --” 

Keith shakes his head, cutting him off before he can apologize again. “I survived. I got you back.”

“Did that make the ache you mentioned go away?”

Keith tightens his hold and Shiro can’t quite make out what he says.

“Keith?”

He turns to press his cheek against Shiro’s chest instead, letting his words out unmuffled. “It’s complicated,” he says. “It eased when I found you the first time but I don’t think it really went away until we were on our way back to Earth.”

“I’m sorry I put you through so much.” Shiro presses a long kiss to the side of his head. “I’m so sorry, baby.”

Keith sighs. “It’s okay, Shiro. You didn’t do any of it on purpose and we’re here now.”

Shiro draws in a deep breath and lets it out slowly. Lingering in this conversation isn’t going to do either of them any good. “I like here,” he says simply, hugging him tighter.

“Me too,” Keith agrees. “Sorry for ruining the mood so thoroughly.”

Shiro snorts. “I have faith in us getting it back if we want. So, something to do with the bonds is part of why you ran earlier?”

“Yeah. You said something about choosing me as your mate and then we kissed and I’ve never been the best at keeping my emotions under control so I, um, I felt myself trying to form the bond again on instinct.” 

Shiro can’t see Keith’s face but he knows he has to be blushing. “Aww, you want to be my mate for real, baby?”

Keith’s breath hitches. “Don’t say that unless you mean it, Shiro. I already left once because calling you my mate and being in love with you was hell on my control.”

“Look at me.” He waits until Keith pulls back and meets his eyes. Shiro cups his cheek. “I want everything with you, Keith. I know it took me until today to say it, but I love you. I always will. Don’t run from me again.”

His eyes flutter shut. “I love you too, Shiro.”

Shiro leans forward and rests his forehead on Keith’s. “So, want to get get Galra engaged for real?”

“Just Galra engaged?” Keith teases.

“Gotta give me a chance to buy a ring before getting human engaged,” Shiro shoots back with a grin. “Can’t rush these things.”

“You just asked me to marry you before taking me on a date, Shiro,” Keith says with a laugh. “You have no room to say that I’m rushing.”

Shiro puts on an exaggerated pout. “Is that a no, then?”

Keith kisses the pout off his face. “It’s a yes, you idiot. I love you. Like I would say anything else,” he says when he pulls back, smile soft and delighted. It takes any possible sting out of his attempted scold, “But I expect at least a couple of dates first.”

“That’s fair,” Shiro says. He slides his hands down to squeeze Keith’s ass. “Wouldn’t want anyone to think you’re easy.”

Keith buries his face in Shiro’s shoulder and just laughs and laughs.

“Plus I need to buy a ring and do some research on mate bonds,” Shiro continues, grinning. “I suppose I could fit a few dates in while I do that.”

“You’re the worst.”

“You love me anyways.”

“I do.” Keith pulled back and tugs on Shiro’s left arm until his hand is in front of him. Keith trails slim fingers across his ring finger. “Maybe I should do the ring shopping while you do research.”

Shiro’s breath hitches as he imagines Keith proposing to him. He’d probably do a better job than Shiro blurting it out in the middle of a conversation less than two hours after they finally confessed their feelings. He suddenly wants it so badly he can’t breathe at all.

“You like that,” Keith says, voice low.

Shiro shivers and nods.

Keith presses a kiss to the base of his ring finger, a promise and a brand, before letting go of his hand to kiss Shiro properly once more.

This time, no one interrupts them.

**Author's Note:**

> find me on [twitter](http://twitter.com/LionessNapping) where i will be buried under an ever increasing pile of Galra mate bond headcanons ([tumblr](http://perfectlyrose.tumblr.com) too!)
> 
> hopefully those headcanons weren't too much of an info dump here! there _might_ be one more thing in this verse but i'm marking it as complete for now as it likely won't be.... anywhere near plot relevant ;D


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